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Posts Tagged ‘cinema 4d’

We’re going to go over how to make a quad sphere in 3ds Max, Maya and Cinema 4D, for CheckMate Pro v2.

The default sphere is problematic because of the two poles. By itself, a standard sphere does not seem to pose any problems, but when it comes time to subdivide, the differences in polygon density at the equator and at the poles produces pinching, and squashes the sphere around the equator.

Click any screenshot below for full resolution.

Comparison of a Polygonal Sphere and a Quad Sphere

Here are the spheres unsmoothed.

When the spheres are smoothed, they both deform in different ways.

You can see how the Polygonal Sphere’s smoothing causes problems once a shader is added. Little ridges are created at the top of the sphere.

You can see the ridges with a chrome material applied also.

While the effect is subtle, you should be able to see the faint star pattern within the normal sphere at the poles where the lighting and reflections get distorted as the sphere is subdivided. Moreover, it can’t simply be fixed by removing every other edge that’s converging to that one vertex to make the pole faces quads. The distortion is a direct result of the fact that it’s a curved surface where the pole exists.

As such, a far better approach is to build a quad sphere, which not only eliminates this pole problem entirely, but is completely CheckMate Pro v2 compliant. Here’s how you can accomplish this quickly in each of the major 3D applications.

As we’re always on the lookout for good uses of TurboSquid’s 3D models, we were thrilled at the most recent sighting. A blog post by Future Media Concepts of Orlando provides a detailed account of how 3D animator Jean Marco Ruesta not only brought four TurboSquid models to life, but also how he pushed them outside the YouTube player’s boundaries to swim onto visitors’ screens.

The lifelike aquatic life starring in these online promotions included: